Whether you play it with a child, a date or a beer, face it: You like miniature golf.

You dig the windmills; they make you think of wooden clogs and pigtails. You appreciate the King Kongs and the T-rexes, the pirate ships and castles and Great Pyramids.

You wallow in the trippiness and the old-school innocence and the simplicity of the whole miniature-golf experience.

It’s summer, and carpeted mazes of concrete thread their way up and down the Front Range. Those fluorescent golf balls – and a dragon or two – are waiting for you.

A. Bicentennial Mini-Golf

American flags. Betsy Ross. Ben Franklin. The Liberty Bell. Miniature golf. Golf itself may have originated in Scotland, and the Scots, too, get credit for the first mini-golf course. But it really took off in the United States. By the late 1920s, there were more than 150 mini-golf courses on the roofs of New York City buildings alone. The Depression pretty much put an end to miniature golf, until it rose again at the end of the 1930s, and that’s when courses with windmills and other obstacles took root. At Bicentennial Mini-Golf, the 36 holes have a mix of celebratory Americana – flags and so on – and traditional obstacles such as windmills. It even has an outhouse hole.

Open Daily 10am-10pm

B. Kennedy Golf Course

Themed courses seem to be popular with the titans of miniature-golf development. Kennedy’s three courses are no exception, and they fall into classic categories: castle, lighthouse, windmill. That is the holy trinity of miniature golf, the mysterious and potent trifecta. Buildings that hold kings and queens and knights; buildings that guide ships at sea; buildings that generate power or turn machinery. Water features? Of course.

Note: Open sunrise to about 10 p.m. daily.

C. Go Putt!

OK, you love golf, but the castles and miniature cabins and coffins? Not so much. Go Putt doesn’t go in for the kitsch at its 36 holes. What it does offer is sand traps and roughs and water hazards, like streams and ponds. It looks like a grown-up course, only it isn’t.

Open Sunday-Thursday: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

D. Putters Pride

Putters Pride offers three 18-hole courses, each with a different theme: valley, foothills and mountain. It’s Colorado, writ small. The course has streams, waterfalls and lots of landscaping that evokes Colorado. Want more Colorado? Look for the wildlife that scampers around the course, including rabbits, squirrels, birds and raccoons.

Open Sunday – Thursday: 10a.m. – 10p.m. and Friday & Saturday: 10a.m. – 11p.m.

E. Heritage Square Amusement Park

Some places offer just miniature golf. Others might throw in go-karts and batting cages. At Heritage Square Amusement Park, you get 36 holes of mini-golf along with pony rides, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, a full-service restaurant and more. The two courses have waterfalls, fountains and volcanoes, and they all are surrounded by a fair bit of pleasant landscaping. In addition, the place sells beer.

Open until 8 p.m.

F. Adventure Golf and Raceway

Here, you have hit the miniature-golf jackpot: an erupting volcano, a fiery Polynesian god, a mummy and a pyramid, and much more. This is the most elaborate mini-golf place along the Front Range. It might just be one of the wildest in the nation. With three themed courses – Adventure Cove, Lost Continent and Buccaneer Bay – you won’t grow bored fast.

Sunday-Thursday: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m.-11 p.m.

G. Gateway Park

Among the beauties of this place – the views of the Flatirons, for example – is its remove from the heart of Boulder. When you play miniature golf here, on the northern fringe of the city, you can elect to cruise into the town for happy hour … or not. Either way, it’s easy to get here, to get out and to have fun. Batting cages, go-karts, a driving range, a game room. And miniature golf. Tap that ball between the legs of a polka-dotted gorilla. Putt the ball through hollow logs. Admire the weird decorative mushrooms. Because this is Boulder, after all.

Open until 11 p.m.

H. Boondocks Fun Center

Here’s a different spin on mini-golf: mischief golf. Every other hole comes with a “spinner,” like the kind you find in the game Twister. Flick the hand. It eventually stops. You are told to putt the ball backward, through your legs while an opponent is told to stand in your way. Get it? Fun. Boondocks has lots of lit-up fountains strewn around 36 holes of mini-golf, as well as a three-story kids play structure, Skee-Ball and more.

Sunday- Thursday 10 a.m.-11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m.-Midnight

I. Cascade Creek Mini-Golf

People head to Estes Park for Rocky Mountain National Park and for bugling elk. But some also go for the town itself, and the spectacle of small-town tourism: the fudge shops, the saltwater taffy place, the caramel-apple and penny-candy dispensaries and the gift stores selling Christmas-tree ornaments by the thousands. How could a place like this not have miniature golf? At Cascade Creek Mini-Golf, which is part of the Estes Park Ride-A-Kart Family Amusement Park, players can knock balls around on two courses, which include waterfalls, mountains and meadows. And the views? Fantastic.

Open Daily: 9:30 a.m.- 10 p.m.

-Doug Brown